The Dude Abides. I'm A Dude AbiKes. I wonder as I wander around Austin on a bicycle.

car-free

In my fourth annual post about living without a car, 14 Years Not a Slave to Cars, I talked about the obvious benefits of riding a bike and not having a car. Of course there’s helping the environment, getting exercise and Vitamin D, and getting to write blog posts that are read and celebrated by 10’s of people around the world. But there are downsides, too. Let’s talk about it!

NOTE 1: If you clicked on, read or liked my Southern Walnut Creek post, please feel free to do so again. I accidentally duplicated it so removed the post.

NOTE 2: You may have seen that sometimes I’m scheduling posts for early on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Normally I post late Monday, Wednesday or Friday. But I think I may be losing a few potential viewers the latter way, so I’m trying the former. What are your thoughts about the schedule? Please let me know in a comment.

I rode the upper half of this trail again, and realized that although familiarity breeds contempt, I’ve never grown weary or bored of this trail. Maybe it’s because there are no cars, so one can relax and enjoy the ride. It could be the variety of sights from thick, evergreen trees to the distant skyline of downtown Austin. There’s occasional deer, rabbit, or armadillo (all of which I saw), not to mention birds, frogs, bugs and more. It’s also used by people walking, running, on rollerblades or even wheelchairs, since it’s 10 feet wide and paved. It’s great for all levels and types of cyclist: road, mountain or even kids (though the latter may not make it up the big hill). It’s been featured on many of my rides on Strava, but today it gets its own blog post. Hop on your bike and come with me on this virtual ride!

In what’s become an annual post, now for the fourth year in a row, I am obligated contractually (by Mother Earth) to inform you that I am still carless. Losing my car on January 25, 2005 was not my choice. Continuing to do without one has been. What does it all mean? Well, I mostly bike (4,554 miles in 2018, to be exact). I also walk to get around, though that’s more for exercise, 30′ a day. I have also used the bus, ridden in friends’ cars, and twice last year I borrowed cars for extended periods. So while I’m not 100% internal combustion engine-free, I still do not own a car. I don’t want a medal, but I do think it’s an important accomplishment worth blogging about. Thanks for reading.

And I would walk five hundred milesAnd I would walk five hundred moreJust to be the man who walked a thousand milesTo fall down at your door

–The Proclaimers, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”

Occasionally I tend to geek out on what I’m doing number-wise with my bicycle. Today, it was passing 1,000 miles for 2018 thus far. Not too shabby, but not as much as in 2016 (where I rode 5,306 miles) or in 2017 (where I rode 4,714 miles). At this rate, by the end of 2018, I’ll end up just shy of riding 3,200 miles. With the weather warming up, I expect I will increase my weekly goal from 50 miles to 75 or even 100. But as my unemployment money dwindles, I will find myself scrambling for income, and that could diminish my activity level significantly. A Dude’s gotta eat and have a roof. But the numbers and what’s behind them are interesting, so click on to read the rest of this post. Continue reading →

Bikes Are Colorblind, They Just Want to Be Ridden

It’s Black History Month in the United States of America, so it would be bad form for a progressive to not pay homage to that (which I did earlier when mentioning the impact of the Black Panther movie) Some people have the mistaken belief that only rich white men in Spandex ride bicycles. They are wrong.

Where I live, I frequently see people of color riding bicycles, usually at night, apparently commuting home from work. They usually don’t have lights or helmets or fancy bikes. But they are cyclists just the same, risking their lives to go about their lives, which includes transporting themselves with their own people power. Leonel Hernandez, who died last month, was one of them.

Today, within the space of 10 minutes, I met a black dude named Ivory and a couple from Thailand named Nukul and Rung, each on a bike. You really meet the coolest people on bikes — of whatever color, status or nationality. You never would probably barely even see them from your motorized steel pollution cage.

Sick As a Dog, Happy As a Clam to Be Car-Free

Today was to have been one of celebration. It’s been a baker’s dozen years since my 1991 Little Red Civic got smashed on Bee Caves Road by a guy in a truck. We “t-boned” because he pulled in front of me; his fault. I survived mostly ok, but the car didn’t. The rest is as they say, history. The first decade of my biking lifestyle was not recorded. I biked for utility and in the process got some exercise, but never very much. Continue reading →

I Am Ready for My Close-Up

Awesome news! After two years and 10,000 miles of bicycle-riding documented on Strava (and before that, many thousands more), your friendly neighborhood A Dude Abikes has been featured in a story mentioned on the front page and then appearing on D1 of the Lifestyles section. It is titled “Can a Regular Guy Pedal 10,000 Miles in Two Years? This Dude Did.” Read the full story in the Austin American-Statesman.